Wintermute, a leading name in the digital asset industry, has launched over-the-counter (OTC) trading for tokenized gold.
The firm announced on February 16 that its OTC desk now supports Pax Gold (PAXG) and Tether Gold (XAUT), the two largest gold-backed tokens by market cap.
The new service makes it easier and smarter for the big clients to buy or sell large amounts of this digital gold. Computer algorithms will help them get the best possible prices and offer flexible ways to pay or receive money, such as:
- Popular cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin or Ethereum)
- Stablecoins (like USDT or USDC, which stay close to $1)
- Regular old money (fiat, like dollars or euros)
The development will help investment funds and big trading firms to manage their gold trading positions efficiently by reducing settlement delays and improving capital efficiency.
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Wintermute has reserved the service for institutional clients to ensure deep liquidity for high-volume trades that would otherwise cause significant price changes on retail exchanges. By focusing on big trading entities, Wintermute can offer specialized settlement and collateral options.
Outpacing Traditional Gold ETFs
The shift toward tokenized gold is picking up speed. The total market capitalization for on-chain gold jumped over 80% in just three months, climbing from $2.99 billion to approximately $5.4 billion by mid-February 2026. Trading activity followed a similar trajectory; tokenized gold products recorded over $126 billion in turnover during the final quarter of 2025, surpassing the volume of several well-established gold ETFs.
Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy expects this market to hit $15 billion by the end of 2026. He says the current growth of tokenized gold is like the infrastructure evolution that previously transformed the foreign exchange market.
Unlike traditional ETFs, these tokens allow for 24/7 trading and direct on-chain settlement. This helps holders to use gold as collateral within the digital finance ecosystems. Furthermore, fractional ownership makes gold exposure accessible to investors who find physical bullion difficult to store or transport.
Wintermute’s move is part of a broader industry trend to provide professional-grade digital asset services, as tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) are now a core part of digital finance.
